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Inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women no simple task

If the inquiry gets it right it could heal decades-old wounds and perhaps begin to restore trust in the justice system

Janet Pete, left, and her niece Genevier Sullivan comfort each other during a march through the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, B.C., on Saturday February 14, 2015, held to honour missing and murdered women and girls from the community. (DARRYL DYCK / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

So many of these killings were easy to ignore because some of the victims were prostitutes, and almost all lived lives mired in poverty. When they went missing authorities often chalked it up to their habit of running away or simply wandering off to the big city.

Whatever happened to them, it was as if it were their own fault.

In Canada, it seems, no one has lower status than an aboriginal female.

But how should the inquiry tackle this problem?

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It’s already obvious from the pre-inquiry consultation process led by Carolyn Bennett, the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, that there is plenty of interest in this inquiry, plenty of people who want to step up and be heard.

Closed consultation sessions were held from Halifax to Whitehorse to Vancouver and lots of places in between.

Most of those attending — about 2,000 in total — were family of victims, social workers, activists, or community elders.

Their suggestions for issues that the inquiry must address produced a long list that includes: causes of violence and abuse, review of investigations of murders, training for police and criminal justice personnel, and media treatment of cases involving murdered or missing Indigenous women.

Arriving at solid conclusions and recommendations for any one of those issues would be a complicated task. And what about compensation for victims’ families? Will that be an outcome of the investigation?

There was only one item that everyone agreed on: The chair of the inquiry must be an Indigenous woman, and most of the panellists should also be Indigenous.

As participants in the consultation process came forward, the numbers of murdered and missing women grew. In 2010 the Native Women’s Association of Canada pegged it at about 600. In 2014 the RCMP revealed that 1,107 Indigenous women had been murdered in Canada between 1980 and 2012, about 16 per cent of all murdered women, far higher than their proportion of the population.

Just over 75 per cent of those murders occurred in the western provinces with B.C. and Alberta recording the highest numbers. When murders of Indigenous women in northern Canada are included, the west and the north account for 80 per cent.

After the current round of consultations Minister Bennett said the actual number was much higher than the one reported by the RCMP. Patty Hadju, minister for the status of women, suggested it might be as high as 4,000.

Given that so many of the victims are from the west maybe the inquiry should be headquartered in Vancouver, Edmonton, or Saskatoon.

This inquiry is going to be far more complex than the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which examined the residential school system and its impact on Indigenous children.

That commission had a very clear mandate: “to gather written and oral history of residential schools and to work toward reconciliation between former students and the rest of Canada.”

So far the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women has not spelled out a specific mandate.

But it could be wading into a quagmire if it sets out to solve missing persons cases or reopen files on deaths that were not ruled as murder at the time.

There are also jurisdictional questions. Can a federal inquiry look into the practices of a provincial police force? What about provincial coroners who may have overlooked obvious signs of foul play?

There are already horrendous examples of how murdered Aboriginal women are not considered worthy of thorough investigation by police. The Robert Pickton saga is proof of that. And there is ample evidence that even the highest levels of the justice system are not beyond suspicion. In 2004 a provincial court judge in Prince George, B.C. was convicted of luring aboriginal teenagers into his office where he sexually assaulted them.

This dirty little Canadian secret needs to be aired; people need to tell their stories for one and all to hear.

If the inquiry gets it right it could heal decades-old wounds and perhaps begin to restore trust in the justice system.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column appears every other week. gsteward@telus.net

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